Motorola RAZR V3 review: The ultra-thin aluminium flip that became the best-selling clamshell ever.
The fashion-icon flip phone.
The RAZR V3 was a cultural phenomenon — an impossibly thin aluminium clamshell with an etched metal keypad that turned a phone into a fashion accessory. Software was an afterthought, but it sold over 130 million and remains the best-selling clamshell ever made.
01Display
40/10040/100 trails the 44-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2004.
02Camera
28/10028/100 is one of the weaker camera results among mid-range phones of 2004 — 14 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
34/10034/100 trails the 36-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2004.
04Battery
56/10056/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2004.
05Build
84/100At 84/100 this is one of the strongest build showings among mid-range phones of 2004 — 18 points above the cohort average.
06Value
58/10058/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2004.
- Iconic ultra-thin aluminium clamshell.
- Etched electroluminescent keypad.
- A genuine fashion statement.
- Best-selling clamshell phone in history (130M+).
- Clunky P2K software.
- VGA camera.
- 2G only.
- Tiny memory.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 4-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .